The Matrix: Jacking Back In
by BearFrog
Summary: Humans and machines have been at peace for six months. The machines have moved to a new energy source, but for some reason the humans in the fields cannot be woken up. Both sides are working together to solve the mystery, and find an powerful new evil.


Clash! Clash!  
  
Another thunderbolt exited from a cloud, with rain along with it, and smashed into the ground. Many more just like it came down from the green sky and clashed, but the rain was in much greater supply. The streets were empty, but not the sidewalks. Every street-corner, building, alley and all in-between had men in business suits watching the lone man in the center of the street.  
  
The man walked slowly in the rain, allowing water to drip off of his black jacket, his black sunglasses, his black hair, his black pants, his black boots. The man's heart was full of pain and darkness, like his attire. He had just lost his lover, and yet he still continued on his mission. He pushed himself on, as he knew that this would be it. This would be the final battle.  
  
The man took a look to his right, and then to his left. Before him he saw all of the identical men, all standing in the rain. Many of them wore the same expression, though some decided to do things like nod their head while smiling to intimidate the man. The lone man then looked up to see an office building. Through the window he could see more of the identical men. The man had seen enough and turned to face forward, once again, as he continued onward.  
  
One of the identical men moved out into the street, every one of his steps exactly the same. He aligned himself on the yellow line and directly faced the lone hero. He was the first to speak.  
  
"Mr. Anderson, welcome back. We missed you." said the man as water dripped off of his lips. He turned to look at the sky as another bolt of lightning emitted from a cloud and asked his enemy "You like what I've done with the place?"  
  
"It ends tonight." replied Anderson, who is better known as Neo.  
  
"I know it does. I've seen it...That's why the rest of me is just going to sit back and enjoy the show because we already know that I am the one that beats you." replied the suited man, known as Smith.  
  
Both men clenched their fists in unison, and then ran towards one- another. Each step they took caused splashes of water to blast away towards the crowd, though none even getting near the other Smiths. Soon the two met in the center, and began their final duel.  
  
Smith began with a punch, quickly countered by Neo's kick. Bam! Bam! Neo punched Smith twice quickly, in the center of his chest. Smith then swung his arm attempting to smack Neo down, but he ducked out of the way and gave Smith and right in the center of his head. Smith threw a karate chop at Neo, who stepped to the side to dodge and gave Smith a one-two combo, one hit going to the chest and the other to the head.  
  
Another punch blocked by Neo. Smith swung his arm in a way that wasn't a punch attempt at all, but only a way to throw water onto Neo. Now both Smith and Neo were getting hits in on each-other. Each blow was light and fast, not really damaging their opponent too much. Then, both of them were in unison once again, and both of them threw punches at each-others faces the hit at the exact same time.  
  
Both of them flew back over twenty feet from the place of impact. Neo landed on one knee with one hand touching the ground, while Smith fell into the concrete of the street and caused a little structure of street to form behind him. He growled as he got up from the ground. Literally. He literally flew into the sky with one fist forward, and then Neo did the same. The two charged toward each-other in the air. When they finally met on impact, a gigantic sphere of water flew up into the air, and pounded itself back down onto the watching Smiths.  
  
The two spun in circles whilst in mid-air, locked in a tight grapple, each trying to throw the other off, each trying to land as many hits as possible. Eventually, Neo was the one who was thrown out of the grapple. He was flung in mid-air and landed in the side of a large brick building, in which he fell through to walls until he finally landed in a large room with a wooden floor.  
  
Dirty and no longer wearing sunglasses, Neo rose up from the floor and stared at Smith through the holes in the wall. Smith can flying in with his arms extended, trying to grab Neo in a quick swoop. Neo jumped over Smith just in time to avoid the grab and turned around to face Smith, both floating.  
  
Neo jumped back against a wall, causing a small crater to form because of the sheer force he was emitting to it, and charged forward to meet Smith in mid-air once again. Both fell to the ground, only Neo hit through wooden support and smacked up against the crater he formed before landing.  
  
As Smith got to standing upright, Neo was still on the ground. He had managed to raise his head to allow the blood from his lip to reach the ground and to see Smith as he began to speak again.  
  
"Can you feel it, Mr. Anderson?" Smith asked as he approached slowly, "Closing in on you? Oh I can."  
  
Neo was now on his knees, looking down at his hand and blood from his lip began to drip on it. When Smith continued to speak he looked up at him once again.  
  
"I really should thank you for it. After all, it was your life that taught me the purpose of all life. The purpose of life is to end."  
  
Neo looked to his right and spit out a bit of blood and stood. He entered his fighting stance, and after entering it he raised his fingers up and down, telling Smith to come on forward.  
  
Once again they became locked in combat. Fists and feet, arms and legs, elbows and knees. They both knew many styles of martial arts, many ways to fight, many tactics and many strategies. They had to use every single bit of that just to compete with their rival for one second.  
  
Neo threw three kicks, all different ways, all of which Smith dodged in different ways. Neo decided to throw a punch. Smith grabbed Neo's arms and attempted to flip Neo over. He simply did a cartwheel like flip and threw a right at Smith, causing him to let go of Neo's arm.  
  
Taking advantage of his opponent's weakness, Neo kicked Smith in the mouth three times with the same leg. Finally, blood flew out of the agent's mouth. Three more kicks were thrown, this time his glasses were knocked off. Then, with one final kick to the gut, Smith flew out threw the glass window and was shoved back many city blocks.  
  
Stopping himself in mid-air, Smith quickly shook some water off of him and charged towards Neo. Neo charged towards Smith and once again a sphere of water was formed, but along with it was glass from several nearby buildings, which were shattered after the two impacted.  
  
Once again the two entered a flying grapple, and slowly rose up as they fought. Occasionally they would get out of the grapple and then do some quick kung-fu, but they quickly re-entered after a few seconds. After they were high above the buildings, another powerful blast between the two warriors caused both of them to zoom away from each-other. Zooming back towards each-other, they once again met and did a little fighting before Neo was flung high and far into the air.  
  
Neo stopped himself suddenly by extending his arms. He flew back down towards Smith and stopped in front of the renegade program and began kicking him. One kick was so powerful that it sent the most dangerous villain on the planet flying backwards. After regaining control of his body, Smith headed towards Neo again.  
  
Neo stared at his approaching adversary as he prepared for the coming attack. Soon the two met once again, and this time created a sphere of water so large that it consumed half of the city. Neo began to fall as Smith stood triumphant. Just when Neo was about to regain control and head back up, Smith zoomed down and locked Neo in a bear-hug.  
  
Neo turned his head to see the ground that Smith was approaching very quickly. He braced himself right before he landed right into the pavement, which now had a very big hole in it. The impact was huge, as cars flew by and glass shattered. After the chaos ensued, a large portion of the Smiths gathered around the hole filled with green water.  
  
Smith stood standing over Neo, who was in the worst pain of his life. He slowly opened his eyes to see the maniacal figure standing over him, and knew that this was not a dream, even if a dream world. He slowly turned over, now supporting himself on his hands. He put his head down a bit slightly, as if praying, as Smith began to speak.  
  
"Why, Mr. Anderson? Why, why, why? Why do you do it? Why? Why get up? Why keep fighting?" Smith asked as Neo began to crawl towards the opposite end of the hole. Smith seemed to get angrier as he spoke on.  
  
"Do you believe you're fighting for something? For more than your survival? Can you tell me what it is? Do you even know? Is it freedom or truth? Perhaps peace? Could it be for love? Illusions, Mr. Anderson. Vagaries of perception. Temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose! And all of them as artificial as The Matrix itself...although, only a human mind could invent something as insipid as love."  
  
Neo was almost on his feet now, struggling to make his arms push him upward.  
  
"You must be able to see it by now, Mr. Anderson. You must know it by now. You can't win. It's pointless to keep fighting. "  
  
Neo was crouched over, but he was on his feet. He rose to a standing position, and stood with the top half of his body facing towards the ground.  
  
"Why, Mr. Anderson, why? Why do you persist?" asked Smith with his teeth clenched together.  
  
Neo, who was almost standing perfectly upright, faced Smith and replied, "Because I choose to."  
  
Fuming, Smith walked towards Neo and threw a right punch which Neo blocked. Then a left, blocked by Neo. Bam! A strong hit to Neo's gut caused him to spit out water as his body moved back slightly. Neo then quickly blocked another high left from Smith. Then, a right block followed.  
  
Then, Neo landed a strong right on Smith's cheek, which was then followed by a right to Smith's chest, which caused the apocalyptic program to fly into the concrete walls and disappear from the sight of the one.  
  
Stumbling a bit, Neo looked up above him to see all of the other Smiths watching him. His attention was suddenly switched back to the other Smith when he heard a rumbling sound. Out of the stone came Smith, dirty and gray. He floated high above Neo and yelled down to him, "This is my world! My world!"  
  
Smith swooped down and shoved Neo down against the flooded ground. Raising his fist high, Smith smacked Neo's head against the ground. Lifting him up by his jacket, Smith punched the messiah of Zion down to the ground as he splashed through the water and landed against the wall of the pit.  
  
Smith walked towards Neo quickly when he suddenly stopped in his tracks and suddenly got an excited look upon his face.  
  
"Wait, I've seen this. This is it. This is the end. Yes...you were laying there, just like that. And I...I stand here, right here, and I'm supposed to say something. I say:" Smith began, when his tone suddenly changed, "Everything that has a beginning has an end, Neo."  
  
Neo slowly raised and turned his head and opened his eyes to see Smith with a bewildered look on his face.  
  
"What? What did I just say?"  
  
Neo slowly turned and began to rise up, as Smith slowly shook his head, confused.  
  
"No, no. This isn't right. This can't be right..."  
  
Neo was now standing, and Smith was almost on his knees. He moved backward a few steps quickly, yelling: "Get away from me!"  
  
"What are you afraid of?" Neo asked softly.  
  
"It's a trick!"  
  
"You were right, Smith. You were always right. It was inevitable."  
  
Smith stared at Neo and then quickly walked forward and shoved his hand inside of Neo's stomach. Soon his body was becoming covered with a black substance, spreading from Smith's hand both up and down. It slowly went up Neo's neck as he turned his head back, and allowed the darkness to swallow his face. Then, as soon as Smith's hand left the body, the head jerked down to face Smith. Standing before him was yet another Smith.  
  
"Is it over?" asked Smith, out of breath and panting. The other Smith smiled a replied with a nod.  
  
Elsewhere, in the world outside of The Matrix, the machines suddenly shoved something into Neo that made both the Neo in the real world twitch, and the Smith-Neo in The Matrix twitch. The Smith who was out of breath stood looking at the new Smith, with a worried expression on his face.  
  
The machines in the real world shoved an electrical force into Neo, which was affecting the one in The Matrix by making a powerful white light appear behind his eyes.  
  
"No, no, no. It's not fair." said Smith as he watched the glasses of the Neo-Smith crack. The Neo-Smith let out a scream, with the same light coming out of its mouth as from behind the eyes. The same light was appearing in the real world's Neo. Soon the Neo-Smith inside The Matrix exploded with the powerful light bursting outward.  
  
Looking up, Smith could see that all of the other Smiths now had the same light from behind their sunglasses. Facing down and grunting, the same exact thing happened to him. He let out a loud glowing scream as Smith by Smith exploded in a chain-effect fashion.  
  
The wires connected to Neo slowly lowered him down, with his back arched and his arms extended, he was dead. He had given his life to save both humanity and machine-kind. At the exact same time he was lowered down, the loitering sentinels in Zion exited through the hole they created. The young boy that Neo had freed from The Matrix was the one to bring the good news to the humans.  
  
"The war is over!"  
  
The machines wired to Neo dragged him to a large transportation robot. It carted the hero who ended the war into the heart of the machine city. Androids, Sentinels, and other machines looked on and would have cried had they had the ability. The all mourned the hero's death, but were also overjoyed with peace at last.  
  
Inside The Matrix the rain had stopped. The sky was blue once again, and the sun was beginning to rise over the horizon. The Oracle sat on a park bench as her opposite approached.  
  
"Well, now. Ain't this a surprise." said The Oracle as she closed up her purse.  
  
"You played a very dangerous game."  
  
"Change always is."  
  
"Just how long do you think this peace is going to last?"  
  
"As long as it can."  
  
The Architect gave a soft single laugh and turned away and was stopped when The Oracle asked a question.  
  
"What about the others?"  
  
"What others?"  
  
"The ones that want out."  
  
"Obviously, they will be freed."  
  
"I have your word?"  
  
"What do you think I am? Human?"  
  
And with that he walked into the distance, as the sun rose to clear away the darkness. 


End file.
